While Messages and RCS is how Google wants you to message friends, Google Chat also fits that role and the company today reminded us...
tl;dr: after pushing rcs so hard for years, killing hangouts well after forgetting about it, & hiding it from gmail, google now wants you to use its (and google allo’s) successor, google chat.
Seriously. I’m quite a Google maximalist (yea, I know, spare me) and a young-ish not-that-old IT nerd. But even I have lost track of which chat app is currently the supported one / the successor of all the dead ones, and how to get is / use it (well, particularly on the web). If I’m confused, I can’t imagine how it is for the average internet user or old people.
Yeah, one thing I have to concede to WhatsApp is that the core of it hasn’t changed. They add stuff all the time, but for now it remains the same for simple usage.
They have a web version that syncs with the phone. Though I’d definitely check out alternatives like Signal, if you’re more privacy-conscious.
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My family uses WhatsApp for chatting. Most are older folk who don’t fare well with products changing regularly.
If Google wants to have a stable userbase, it needs to stop moving stuff around.
Seriously. I’m quite a Google maximalist (yea, I know, spare me) and a
young-ishnot-that-old IT nerd. But even I have lost track of which chat app is currently the supported one / the successor of all the dead ones, and how to get is / use it (well, particularly on the web). If I’m confused, I can’t imagine how it is for the average internet user or old people.Yeah, one thing I have to concede to WhatsApp is that the core of it hasn’t changed. They add stuff all the time, but for now it remains the same for simple usage.
They have a web version that syncs with the phone. Though I’d definitely check out alternatives like Signal, if you’re more privacy-conscious.
Zuckerberg can be an moron from a privacy perspective, but he sure does seem to respect stability.
Even Google Chat is trash. It can’t beat Signal.